By CHRIS BRUMMITT | Associated Press – Fri, Sep 28, 2012 2:35 AM EDT
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The 7-iron resting against the wall in Le Quoc Quan’s office is for self-defense, not sport. The human-rights lawyer and blogger has not left home without the golf club since being beaten last month by iron-bar-wielding men he suspects were sent by the police.
If the assault was meant to silence him, it failed. Within days he was back online, and reporting about the incident.
The Internet has become the principal staging ground for dissent in Vietnam, and its Communist rulers are trying to clamp down with new laws, stepped up arrests, intimidation and longer prison sentences. But so far, it’s a battle they are losing.
Facebook and other social networking sites are blocked here, but the state firewall is so flimsy that even schoolchildren know how to fiddle with computer settings to get around it. The government has announced bans on websites, only to see traffic to them skyrocket. Three bloggers were sentenced to prison this week — one for 12 years — but many others continue to pursue their causes.
Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/vietnam-struggles-crack-down-activist-blogs-060539127.html
